This is the same version as the e-book, with the exception of a single pesky comma that shouldn’t have been there. As a perfectionist, I saw the opportunity to remove it and did so. The biggest issue I had with the e-book was that the illustrations were not inline with the text as I originally envisaged them. To my (uncultured) mind this spoiled the flow of the story somewhat. That’s now fixed. As a bonus there are 7 x vignettes which aren’t in the e-book. They’re not exactly new as they’ve all been extracted from the full page illustrations. Overall, in my opinion, they add to the Ferret feel.

Personally I’m truly delighted with the finished article. It does justice to Richard’s crazy artwork in a way that the e-book didn’t.

One of many items on my agenda for this year is to produce a print-on-demand copy of Ferret. I used a third party company to assemble the e-book, mainly because my head was full of other things at the time and I didn’t have the space to learn yet another way to format text. With hindsight, I wish I’d explored all of the options available and done it myself, because one of the things I’ve always found exciting is holding a finished, quality document in my hand, even if it is virtual. We are where we are, as the saying goes.

For the record, I have no issues with the quality of the e-book; I do, however, have a few issues with the format, the biggest of which is the (non) placement of graphics inline with the text. I’ll cover the whole print-on-demand experience in a follow-up article, as I learned a lot of tricks that I’d like to pass on.

For now, here’s a preview of the finished cover:

I have a proof copy winging its way through the ether. Hopefully everything will be just fine and I’ll be able to make Ferret available in printed form within the next few weeks. I’m really excited to see the finished article as the e-book didn’t do justice to the artwork. Fingers crossed that those big pictures aren’t one messy splodge!

Like this:

Thanks to Richard Argent over at ArgentArt, we now have a cover. I’m very pleased with the result, which took a lot of work to get right. It’s not what I originally had in mind, but that simply didn’t work in the real world – and besides, this is much more fun. Richard took inspiration from Will Eisner’s work on ‘The Spirit’ comic. The composition is spot-on, and there’s a lot going on, hidden in plain sight which relates to the novel. You’ll have a great time decoding it all, I’m sure.

For now though, the big question is what’s in the box?

You’ll have to read The Ferret Files to find out. Not long now, honest. I know I’ve said that a few times over the last six months, but this time it’s true. I had a misfire with a copy editor who didn’t perform as expected, so had to draft in a replacement, who did a much better job. However, it’s cost me two months in wasted time to find another editor and work through all the comments.

Like this:

Well, I finally finished editing Ferret to my satisfaction and during the read through noticed that the illustrations are not as well spaced as they might be. Cue a mad panic and a half dozen vignettes, which I must say have turned out to be rather splendid. So much so, I thought I’d post a couple for your delectation.

Like this:

This is the fourth and final illustration for the Ferret Files, as drawn by my good pal Richard Argent, over at Argent Art.

It’s been a long old slog, I thought it might take 9 months to write the novel – we’re now at 3.5 years! Admittedly, the actual time I’ve been on the project full time is 8 months – about to take 3 weeks off and finally nail the sucker. Then comes the scary bit…

Like this:

Here’s a sneak peek at the second illustration for the Ferret Files, courtesy of my good pal Richard Argent over at www.argentart.co.uk.

We were working on this scene, busily rewatching old Hammer Horror films when the sad news of Sir Christopher Lee’s death was announced. I suspect that Ferret & Emily may well be making their way into the world of merchandising…

It’s been a while since I finished the first draft of the Ferret Files and started on the second. To be honest, I really had no idea how long it might take, having not written a full length novel before. In the background, I’ve been working with my good pal Richard Argent over at Argent Art to put some Ferret visuals together (Richard is a very talented artist, please check his other stuff out). Firstly, I have a funky new Avatar which I’m very pleased with:

Ferret in London

I should point out that Ferret the Detecting Consultant is a real person, not a cartoon character. He runs a detective agency, this is his logo and it’s what appears on his business cards. Very kindly, he’s agreed to lend it to me, to help promote his story.

Over the next few days I’ll publish some of Richard’s other Ferret illustrations – they’re very good. He’s currently working on a half dozen sketches, drawn in his usual style, as illustrations for the finished novel. I can’t wait to see key scenes of London, populated with my characters, it’s going to rock big time.